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Rmglaelia
Newbie Poster
Username: Rmglaelia

Post Number: 2
Registered: 03-2006

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Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 05:29 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

AUSTIN JOURNAL #1

I am here deliberately, but not intentionally.
It is not where I need to be, except here,
I can avoid loneliness, interruptions, questions,
see my sun-haired sister, my kind nephews.

As is typical for a New Yorker, I am suspicious
of the nice people. In the coffee place with the cute name, the coffee sucks, the bagels and brownies suck,as well.

I miss the givens of New York City,
a good bagel, great coffee everywhere,
though I am suspicious of any capitalist
who smiles or who is concerned that I do not.
Forgive them, Father, for they know not
what they do.

Motherf**k, they know precisely what they do.
It is moreso a question of empathy, where it prevails, where it falters. Like empathy for cowboy chic,poor white people, their hair.
I don’t have any. I really do hate them.
For it. And don’t let them open their mouths
and desecrate the English of the king
with that twang shit. Speaking of which, Condoleeza,my workshop people tell me,
does what her boss tells her to do,
to keep her job. According to Aaron McGruder,
her job is killing people. According to
Ruth-Miriam Garnett,so was Colin’s,
and politics has an ethics that wavers, but then, all ethics waver, all civilizations wane.

Death, how ever, is for ever, as well, the lines we cross, smiling, as we prepare to drink
the blood of an enemy; I learned recently
some aggressive monkeys do this,
while some peaceful monkeys have a lot of sex.

Maybe Condoleeza should f**k her boss,
turn him out, resign, then volunteer
for future f**king. Maybe then, the two
could work together to cultivate avoidance issues,
like how to avoid the genocide of
African Americans in coastal regions,
the viagra bombing of Afghanis on camels.

Consider morality by default as delusion,
as nihilist.

Consider, nothing falls straight by accident.

I know; I have a Dirt Devil.

From: Concerning Violence, by Ruth-Miriam Garnett; (© 2006; Onegin Publishing)
Ruth-Miriam Garnett is author of a novel, Laelia, published in January 2004 by Simon & Schuster/Atria Books and A Move Further South (poems, 1987; Third World Press, Chicago). Her poems have appeared in Black Scholar, Callaloo, Essence, New Rain, Pivot, River Styx, Steppingstones and in the anthologies In Search of Color Everywhere (Stewart, Tabori, Chang, New York, NY 1995) and Beyond the Frontier: African American Poets in the 21st Century (Black Classic Press, Baltimore, MD, 2002), and her essays most recently in The Green Magazine. A new volume of poems, Concerning Violence, will be out in 2006 from Onegin Publishing.

Please contact directly Ruth through her representative: OliviaGWalker@aol.com
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden

Post Number: 1979
Registered: 03-2004

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Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 - 11:03 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Excellent poem--

I have known Sister Ruth for a long time and have been a member/participant in her excellent Maat workshop and would recommend it if it is ever held near you--and her novel, Laelia too.
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Bookgirl
Regular Poster
Username: Bookgirl

Post Number: 111
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 - 10:39 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I discovered her novel Laelia just recently and was very impressed. I loved it. She is a very talented author and I hope that she will write more novels.

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